Sex Offender Loophole Fixed in House Bill
Sunday, June 06, 2010
The Rhode Island House yesterday closed a loophole that has allowed hundreds of sex offenders to stay off public registries.
Under current law, sex offenders who are released from prison go before a review board that ranks how dangerous they are. That ranking can be appealed, however, and, during that process, a convicted sex offender does not have to register, according to the bill’s sponsor, Peter Palumbo, a Cranston Democrat.
As a result, he estimates that 200 sex offenders had slipped through the cracks while their appeals are pending. “They’re moving around Rhode Island—or we don’t even know if they are in Rhode Island,” Palumbo said. “They could be living next door to you and you wouldn’t know it.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe bill would eliminate the review board, ensuring that sex offenders are automatically assigned a ranking based on the seriousness of their offense, on scale of one to three, with three reserved for the most serious offenders.
The bill would make Rhode Island eligible for as much as $700,000 in federal funds, which would be used to set up a statewide sex offender registry, saving communities the cost of having their own registries, according to Palumbo.
Palumbo has dubbed the bill the “Adam Walsh Act,” after a 6-year-old Florida boy who was abducted and murdered in the 1980s—his father, John Walsh, is the host of “America’s Most Wanted.”
Whether the bill becomes law now depends on what action the Senate takes, Palumbo said.
